Really Bud?If it’s true, it’s probably geolocked to only the US seeing it.
Guaranteed is. This is not new to Google, they have disputed territories, disputed names, they have gone through this before. This is just Americans seeing it for the first time. Google probably has an admin page that let’s them set it up without ever needing an engineer anymore. If you’re within this polygon you see this line, else you see the line over there. The alternative is they get sued/shut down in that country/ etc. While I have no love for Google, this is simply them picking their battles.
I remember Google doing it with the Gulf of Mexico, so they shouldn’t be too surprised it wasn’t that long ago.
this is simply them picking their battles.
name a battle they picked to fight for the benefit of the common man in the last :
- 1 month
- 3 months
- 6 months
- 1 Year
If they’re picking battles, they must have done something worthwhile, right?
No, that’s not what I said, I said they’re picking their battles, and I didn’t offer any reason or justification for why. You can do that if you choose, but I’m not going to go off and do errands to prove a point I wasn’t making.
I said they’re picking their battles, and I didn’t offer any reason or justification for why
OK, and I’m saying they are not picking anything, and just rolling over. There is no fucking battle that they are fighting, so they aren’t picking any battles.
Of course they pick battles for their interest all the time, do you think they have never sued anyone? https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/serpapi-lawsuit/
Look, I hate Google as much as the next guy, but do you know what the phrase “picking your battles” actually means?
Yeah, reserving your resources for moments that actually matter instead of wasting them for every petty issue.
But I don’t think they are reserving anything for any moment, worthwhile or not. So they aren’t “picking their battles” they are “doing jack shit”
To directly answer the question: within the last 3 or 6 months (I’m not sure precisely), they banned multiple youtubers that were placing ads to work for Russian Alabuga and it’s drone production. It’s an example of using their weight, in this case even something good.
On the other hand, I mostly actually agree with you. While I do think that they are picking their battles, I also think which battles they go into is usually not in your or mine interests. Instead, the battles are frequently in the interests of the richest google investors (think 10M+) and the US government, as of late. The Alabuga case above is a good and noteworthy exception.
American here, currently traveling through the (boring) state of Nebraska.
I just checked Google Maps from my Android tablet app. It shows Lake America for me:
IIRC they did this with the Gulf of Mexico too
I see Gulf of America in parentheses. You know, like a participation trophy.
I’m from the US but moved to Sweden a year ago. It’s changed for me when I look at it. So maybe it’s not specifically geolocjed but has to do with where my account was set up, or some localization setting somewhere?
Possibly, but that doesn’t look like a maps compass rose I’ve ever seen.
Could be for Android or something.
Here’s what I see on iOS in Australia
2 hours later and they’ve fully renamed it.
Well that was a fucking lie.
It’s still Ontario in Germany.
It is Android.
Still says Lake Ontario for me, on Android, in Google Maps. I’m in Europe
It’s true. This person is wrong.
Its well known that Google Maps shows different names/borders depending on where the user accesses it from
google maps New Zealand
Smallest of the 5 great lakes 😂
Also, it’s very definitely not Superior.
I still have Ontario on desktop and the wifes android down here
If you’re bored, report missing information and say the lake is wrong and that this will cause conflicts with street signs and directions for actual locations. May as well give them a bunch of support tickets that waste some amount of resources
I’m sure after making this kind of change, they also have an automated system that redirects all related support tickets directly to the trash.
Google has been sending support requests directly to the trash for at least 20 years, nothing new here
They even seem to have some automations for it. The route to my old apartment was shown wrong and delivery drivers almost always popped up on the wrong side of my building behind my backyard. I tried to fix this but my edits were automatically rejected as being malicious. That’s one reason I don’t use Google Maps for navigation anymore.
Edit: Just checked again. It’s still wrong on Google Maps, still correct on Apple Maps.
google maps Australia
Honestly, this is pure overreaction once again. It’s well known that Google (and most non-OSS maps) show their information for your location based on the official sources for that location. The new, official name in the US for Lake Ontario is Lake America, like it or not. That this is stupid, unhinged and a fully retarded Trump take is true, but it’s official for the American side. Canada could do the same and call it Lake Canada. It doesn’t change how other countries call it, but any country could name it the way it wants.
This is not some Trumpist at Google doing insider work. This is not a conspiracy of Google supporting Trump. It’s that Google maps is querying its data from some source and pushing it into maps, as they do with any country official source, if it’s available.
Again, not defending Google’s other shit or Trumps madness, but in this case they’re showing the correct data. What’s the issue here?
They could do the right thing and resist the fascism. You know, like how anybody with a platform and a moral compass would do. But I suppose expecting shitty companies to not be shitty is too much to ask.
That was fast
I didn’t believe you so I checked and yep, they actually fucking did it.
Incredible that anyone wants to work for such Pscho corporations. They must be incredibly ignorant outside their job-function - I hope…
Google has always shown the local official name for everything. Borders and names can vary a lot depending on where you are from. I still see lake Ontario since I’m not from the US.
Tis normal in Denmark still
They chickened out for the Gulf of Mexico, taking the coward’s middle road.
(As seen from Sweden)
Same for us down south
Yet but what the fuck
is this shitLooks like someone has created a location like a business or public amity in the lake.
We all remember the usa and google doing this to The Gulf of Mexico don’t we?
That is why we no longer accept US people referring to themselves as Americans, they don’t own the continent(s), even though that is their obvious aim.
Still normal in the UK
Google shows you different things based on your location
Normal in NZ
Nothing changed from my side, still lake Ontario.
I’m just going to play devil’s advocate because it was essentially mandated that they change it. What does google say outside of the US though? If they changed it for Canadians or non-US, then absolutely they deserve all the pitchforks. If it’s just in US, well, we shouldn’t be mad at them for this one.
It’s an executive order, no business has to follow it.
They’re picking their battles. They could go against this, but what would they win? Mild PR from users? They have a lot more to lose. I have no love for google but this was never going to be a fight they were going to make.
It would be a solid PR move to ignore the orange pedophile’s tantrums, but all of silicon valley is just another head of the same grotesque chimera that is the US ruling class.
Eh I don’t think it would. The vast majority of American’s don’t care, or eyeroll. The blame right now isn’t on google, it’s on the one who signed the order. Those who do care are a very small minority. So maybe Google gets a bit of PR? But they also piss off the white house, and valiant or not we’ve seen how petty they can be there.
They could go against this, but what would they win?
Accuracy. Literally the #1 thing I value in maps. Changing the name tells me that they care about political appeasement more than accuracy.
European here just checked it still says Ontario on mine. Checked gmaps on android and ios as well as Apple Maps, all say Ontario here.
Thanks for checking! Yup makes sense. In that case I see it purely as they flipped it in the US, it’s not their fight to have.
Can executive orders force private companies to change how they name something? It sounds like a First Amendment issue.
